EPA Orders 90% of Lead Cut From Gasoline by Jan. 1

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday that it will slash allowable gasoline lead levels more than 90% by Jan. 1 and will consider a total ban as early as 1988 in light of evidence that airborne lead poses substantial health threats.

The EPA’s decision, generally praised by both environmentalists and the oil industry, will require the lead content to be reduced from the current 1.1 grams per gallon of leaded gasoline to 0.1 grams next January. An interim standard of 0.5 grams will take effect in July.

Several studies by the federal Centers for Disease Control, the EPA and various universities have shown a strong correlation between lead levels in gasoline and lead levels in blood, particularly in children. In combination with lead from other sources, such as chipping paint, airborne lead can cause brain and nerve damage, mental retardation, anemia and kidney disorders, EPA studies show.

The Centers for Disease Control recently lowered the definition of lead toxicity in humans from 30 micrograms--or 0.00003 grams--to 25 micrograms per one-tenth liter of blood. In the absence of the new EPA standards, it was estimated that more than 300,000 children would have such toxic blood levels next year.

Two recent studies have suggested that even particularly minute lead levels may be linked with high blood pressure, and another found that lead interferes with brain, liver and other body functions at levels as low as 10 micrograms per one-tenth liter of blood.

Using the data in the new studies, the agency estimated that reducing lead by 90% could prevent 1.8 million cases of high blood pressure among white men between the ages of 40 and 59 in 1986 alone, as well as 5,000 heart attacks and more than 1,000 strokes.

Few persons take in more than 15 micrograms of lead from all sources during a lifetime, EPA medical spokesman Bernard Goldstein said--but that additional amount of airborne lead can severely handicap a child who already has ingested lead from paint or soil.

Leaded gasoline generally is intended for use in cars, trucks and boats manufactured before 1971, whose heavily loaded engines may require lead to prevent valve damage; all vehicles sold today require unleaded gasoline in order to operate with pollution control equipment.

Increases Power

But leaded gasoline increases engine power and is generally priced about 7 to 10 cents a gallon cheaper than unleaded, and about 16% of owners whose vehicles are designed for unleaded fuel instead pump leaded gasoline, according to EPA estimates.

Leaded gasoline accounts for 39% of all gasoline sales, according to Daniel Lundberg, publisher of a newsletter on the retail gasoline industry.

EPA Administrator Lee M. Thomas said the new reduction in lead content will save $6 billion in medical and automobile maintenance costs over the next seven years and will reduce lead usage in gasoline from 33,000 tons to 5,500 tons a year. But he contended that an immediate total ban on lead in gasoline is not possible.

Higher Production Price

He also estimated that the new standards would raise the price of gasoline production by 2 cents a gallon, although he said he was uncertain how that would affect prices to consumers.

Environmental groups generally praised the EPA’s decision but expressed disappointment that a total ban would not take place immediately. Nonetheless, the tough new standards are “a major victory for the environment,” said Environmental Defense Fund attorney Robert Percival, who noted that the EPA originally was not considering an outright ban before 1995, and in 1982 had actually considered relaxing or rescinding lead standards.

Reaction from the oil industry also was generally supportive, although giant Exxon and the American Petroleum Institute had asked the agency to stretch the lead reduction over three years.

Invested in Equipment

“The phase-down is very good for Tosco,” said Charles Eddy, a spokesman for the largest independent refiner in California, which invested in unleaded production equipment in 1980 and is anxious to take advantage of it.

Makers of lead additives were more critical of Monday’s decision but said that foreign markets for lead are still strong. In anticipation of the EPA ruling, Ethyl Corp. of Richmond, Va., last year wrote off $32 million worth of lead-related equipment that it said would be underused.

Representatives of Ethyl, which introduced leaded gasoline in 1923 to prevent “engine knock,” charged that the decision was “politically motivated.” One, Prescott Rowe, declared: “(The EPA has) got to show they’re in the business to protect the environment, and this is an easy one to get.”

And Ethyl Vice Chairman Lawrence E. Blanchard Jr. said in a statement: “In over 60 years of use of lead in gasoline, no one has ever found a single person who suffered any identifiable health effects from lead in the general atmosphere.”